State Democrats advance gun bills

State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, displays a newspaper ad showing the type of assault style rifle that his proposed legislation would ban in California during a hearing of the Senate Public Safety Committee in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, April 16, 2013. Steinberg's measure, SB374, which would outlaw rifles with detachable magazines, is one of seven bills that Senate Democrats have proposed to tighten California's already strict gun control laws.(AP Photo/Rich Ped
— AP

State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, displays a newspaper ad showing the type of assault style rifle that his proposed legislation would ban in California during a hearing of the Senate Public Safety Committee in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, April 16, 2013. Steinberg's measure, SB374, which would outlaw rifles with detachable magazines, is one of seven bills that Senate Democrats have proposed to tighten California's already strict gun control laws.(AP Photo/Rich Ped
/ AP

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“There is no way to completely protect everybody. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do what we can to protect as many people as we can,” said Sen. Marty Block, a San Diego Democrat and member of the committee.

But fellow committee member Joel Anderson, R-La Mesa, said Democrats were overreaching.

“I want to protect children and the innocent by defending law-abiding citizens’ ability to protect themselves,” Anderson said. “It is clear to me that only the criminal and mentally deranged find it acceptable to kill children.”

Meanwhile, the Assembly Public Safety Committee rejected two GOP-backed measures to expand gun rights while approving a Democrat bill tightening existing law governing unsecured and loaded weapons away from children.

The advance of regulations stands in stark contrast to a stalemate in Congress, which remains sharply divided months after the mass murders in Newton, Conn. and Aurora, Colo.

The U.S. Senate is debating expanding background checks to online sales and at gun shows. Such background checks are already required under California law. Thus far the Republican-controlled House has shown little appetite for tightening gun laws.

In California, Democrats control supermajorities in the Assembly and Senate.

The state must move independently and “do everything we can to lessen the carnage on our streets,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento.

Other bills in the package would:

• Ban magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds.

• Add a combination shotgun-rifle to the state’s list of prohibited weapons.

• Require background checks for all gun owners.

• Require ammunition buyers to undergo a background check and get a permit.

• Require more training for gun buyers.

• And add new crimes to those that disqualify California residents from owning weapons.

California is not alone. New York, Connecticut and Colorado have passed restrictions on firearms. Still, if signed into law, the measures would likely solidify California’s reputation as perhaps the most restrictive state in the nation when in comes to guns.

In an interview, Block said he backs the bills despite possible political repercussions from gun-rights groups.

“It’s a small price to pay to make kids safer,” Block said.

The panel spent more than two hours and heard dozens of witnesses before passing Steinberg’s legislation to ban semi-automatic weapons with detachable magazines.

Arguments from gun-rights advocates centered on protections guaranteed by the Second Amendment, self-defense needs and that any new restrictions would do little to deter criminals.

“These horrendous crimes are committed by criminals. They’re not committed by the law-abiding citizen,” said Mark Halcon, owner of American Shooting Center in San Diego.

Halcon said the number of gun-related deaths can be misleading because often the statistics include those who committed suicide, and those killed committing crimes or in gang-related shootings.

“I’m not here to be popular. I’m up here to put some logic to this,” he said.

Halcon said violent movies and video games also play a role, teaching children that “life isn’t important.” He also questioned why schools do not offer firearms safety programs, yet teach awareness about pregnancy, smoking and drugs.

John Michael Garcia, a San Diego County resident and a Department of Defense contractor on weapons and tactics, said the Legislature has picked the wrong target.

“They are attacking law-abiding citizens. If they were truly concerned about public safety they would attack the criminals,” he said.

Garcia said he suspects the legislation is “a political move. They want to get re-elected. They want to make a name for themselves.”

San Diego pediatrician Nancy Graff was one of a number of doctors urging the committee to act.

“The safest communities and homes for kids to be in are communities and homes without guns,” she said in an interview.

Graff said she and her fellow members of the California Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics are not promoting a ban on all guns.

“We realize there are protections in place for people to own guns,” Graff said. “We would like there to be thoughtful protection, though, for children.”

Rob Young, who was wounded as a child during a 1989 shooting at a Stockton elementary school, was among law enforcement officials who testified against the bills.

“I have never blamed the firearm,” said Young, a police officer in the San Francisco Bay area. He was shot by Patrick Purdy, who used a military-style rifle and killed five children and wounded 30 before killing himself.

Young said the proposed bills will do little to stop crime but will harm law-abiding citizens. “Criminals,” he said, “do not play by the rules.”

Some county sheriffs called Steinberg’s the bill unconstitutional and unenforceable.

Sen. Block is carrying a lower-profile piece of the Democrats’ package. His measure would require long-gun buyers to take a written safety test, which already is given by gun stores to handgun purchasers before transactions can be completed.

In other developments, the Assembly Public Safety Committee rejected legislation carried by Assemblyman Brian Jones, R-Santee, to make it more difficult for county sheriffs and city police chiefs to deny applications for concealed weapons permits.

The panel approved legislation that would broaden existing law to hold a gun owner criminally liable if a child kills or injures someone with an unsecured, loaded firearm. But it defeated a bill to overturn the state’s ban on openly carrying unloaded firearms.